BALTIMORE — Downtown Baltimore continues to recover from an underground fire over the weekend that caused a manhole explosion and thousands of electrical outages.
Although BGE says power's been restored to the vast majority of impacted customers, some local government functions are still dealing with the aftermath.
With emergency road closures remaining in effect around the 300 block of N. Charles Street, Baltimore City Circuit Courthouses, including the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse, have been forced to close Monday.
The Harry E. Cummings Building at 401 E. Fayette Street, and the Municipal Post Office are closed as well.
Lingering outages have created disruptions for City vendor payments and mail delivery, hindering the ability of Accounts Payable to process checks or EFTs.
RELATED: Underground explosion downtown disrupts traffic and shuts down power in certain areas
Certain computer systems within several county libraries are also down, due to problems with fiber optic cables that run their public telephones,websites, printers and WiFi networks.
The fire required the electrical grid to be shut down surrounding Lexington, Mulberry, Saratoga, Calvert, and Sharp Streets, affecting approximately 2,200 customers including University of Maryland, Midtown Hospital who temporarily resorted to using a generator. Light Rail traffic was also diverted for a short period of time.
Outages were required in order for the fire to be extinguished, so BGE could assess and repair underground electric infrastructure damage.
It's the second time this year an underground fire in the area sent businesses and residents rushing to safety. Luckily both times, no one was injured.
Two similar incidents also happened along the block in 2018.
